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Elie Wiesel

"I learned that in extreme situations when human lives and dignity are at state, neutrality is a sin. It helps the killers, not the victims." Elie Wiesel, Holocaust Survivor who lost his family in the Holocaust - Nobel Prize Author

Socialism - Liberalism Quotation

"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened."–Norman Thomas

American socialist, 1948

Saturday, January 30, 2010

A disasterous no-climate-change scandal, the UN's IPCC disgraced, a distinguished (not any more) British scientist asked to resign his position at the University of East Anglia Climate Unit - and it's not enough. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is proposing a $100 billion green fund to "finance low carbon development in the world's poorer countries." And guess what? George Soros is likely behind the plan.

The idea seems to be this: The central banks of developed countries
would inject capital into the fund using some of their SDR allocations.
The fund would then issue bonds to investors, including sovereign
wealth funds that would be backed by the green fund’s capital.

So, with no agreement in Copenhagen, the US will participate anyway?

The idea appears to be uncannily similar to that proposed by financier
George Soros around the time of the Copenhagen meeting -– though the
IMF boss didn’t give him a name check.

How many water systems would $100 billion build? How many DDT sprays would it buy to abolish malaria? How many schools would it build? How many tractors would it buy?

The Wall Street Journal asks: How will it be paid for?

According to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF managing director, who
made the proposal public Saturday, the capital will come from Special
Drawing Rights – the IMF’s own currency — held by world’s central banks.

The SDR is an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in
1969 to supplement its member countries' official reserves. Its value
is based on a basket of four key international currencies, and SDRs can
be exchanged for freely usable currencies. With a general SDR
allocation that took effect on August 28 and a special allocation on
September 9, 2009, the amount of SDRs increased from SDR 21.4 billion
to SDR 204.1 billion (currently equivalent to about $324 billion).

In short, the IMF says they will use their "own currency." But where does the currency come from? The international community is the answer. In 1969:

...the international community decided to create a new international reserve asset under the auspices of the IMF.

Here is a more specific explanation of a Special Drawing Right (SDR):

The SDR is neither a currency, nor a claim on the IMF. Rather, it is a
potential claim on the freely usable currencies of IMF members. Holders
of SDRs can obtain these currencies in exchange for their SDRs in two
ways: first, through the arrangement of voluntary exchanges between
members; and second, by the IMF designating members with strong
external positions to purchase SDRs from members with weak external
positions.

Similar to a carbon credit, maybe? A wealthy person with a large carbon footprint, buys carbon credits to plant a tree in a third world country?

This from the Wall Street Journal article linked in the second paragraph:

SDRs were first created and issued to IMF members in 1969 in an era of
a dollar shortage, where central banks couldn’t find enough dollars and
gold for their reserves. Now, after a new issue last year, the amount
held in central banks around the world exceeds $300 billion.

The fund would then use that money to make grants and low-cost loans to developing countries to finance low-carbon growth.

In the meantime, the people have no drinking water in their communities, no agriculture, no roads, no electricity, no way to combat malaria, but they will have a tiny carbon footprint.

"One of the prettiest sounds on earth" is the Muslim call to prayer at sunset.

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